Photography, Motorcycling, Travel, Gadgets and Astrophotography

Cremate Me, Don’t Bury Me

These poor flowers were dying, so rather than let them rot away in some landfill, I decided to cremate them instead. It must be this crazy cabin fever during the depths of winter that causes me to think up such things.

The shots were made by carefully squirting small quantities of rubbing alcohol into the petals flower and setting it ablaze. I used a Pentax K-5 with the D-FA 100mm f2.8 macro lens. The photos were taken in relatively dark conditions with only a 100 watt bulb in the distance to provide some ambient light. Before taking the shot, I set the camera to spot metering mode, focused manually and used a custom white balance. Once I was satisfied, I torched the flower and took several shots before the flame died down.

Blue and WhiteRed and Orange

Apparently igniting different kinds of alcohol will produce different colour flames. Far be it from me to waste good Whiskey on such endevours, nor the premium Cuban Rum I am saving for a special occasion. For now rubbing alcohol will suffice until someone gifts me some cheap tequila or rot gut bourbon. Even so, I was able to see a lot of variation in the flames.